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DRC Half 2014

January 21, 2015 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

Not only was DRC Half our first half marathon since having Lane and Miles, but it was also our first time to be separated from our babies and/or breastbumps for an extended period of time – you know what we are saying?? (sorry if you’re a dude reading this) Because we planned to get there at the last possible minute we both rode down there separately. On top of getting down to the race site at the last minute we also planned to leave as soon as we were finished with the half. Not time for dilly dallying for LiAR!

We should mention too, thankfully we both got to run this race together! Teal ended up having to register for the race the morning of. When she got to the registration tent it was 7:14 a.m. (one minute until registration closed) the volunteers were already closing up their computers. This is where we get to insert the babies make getting things done harder excuse, riiight?! Ok, fine, we know we aren’t the first in this world to have babies, but it is interesting to get things done. So don’t be surprised if we periodically use that excuse. 🙂 Anyway, Teal got registered and we met up at the port-a-potties. Do people meet up at other places on race mornings?

When we got to the start line we ran into the lovely Lauren of The Unlikely Runners. So good to briefly catch up with you lady! Our main goals for the day where and stop us if you’ve heard this before – don’t die and finish. 🙂

Oh how goals sure change when you have major things happen to your body! But of course, Lane and Miles are more than worth temporary setbacks in running!

Thanks, Robert, we stole this picture from you! 🙂

We stuck together, chatted each other’s ears off, occasionally listened to the conversations of other runners and appreciated having the other with us!

The weather was nice for our first half back and to that we are thankful to the race day weather gods! 😉 We complete our half running the whole way! We were pretty darn proud of ourselves. If we could run DRC Half then surely we would be able to make it through the half at Dallas Marathon with continued training right?

Well, it would be kind of sad if that was it for the day. Rode by ourselves to the race, complete our first post partum half and then rode home by ourselves, that’s it? No way! Naturally we forced our husbands and our babies to come celebrate with us at brunch afterwards! And we love celebrate with a tasty mimosa. 🙂

With all of that said….that is a wrap on half marathon no. 22!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we love the medal series the Dallas Running Club is doing with this race!

Fun fact: DRC 2013 was our first half as pregnant ladies. Doesn’t it make it fun that 2014 was our first half as moms??

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: Dallas Marathon, Dallas Running Club, DRC Half, Half Marathon, postpartum, pregnant, race, race goals, running

Running for Two: Trimester Two

May 27, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

I had to go back and really remember what range of time made up the second trimester for me which is kind of sad since I’m really still early on in the third trimester. My second trimester was made up mostly of February, March, April and a little bit of May. I was hoping to still put in at least another 100 mile month in either February or March, but that just did not happen. February ended with 71.81 miles while March came in at 67.41 miles. During this time I had the fact that I was registered for Rock n Roll Dallas as my last half to run while pregnant as my motivation to get the miles in as much as possible. A lot of my running at this point had become solo which was not really what I was use to and made for some lonely times out on the pavement.

16 weeks 3 days pregnant

an overall pace of 9:52 don’t be fooled by the garmin set to current pace

I had already seen somewhat of a decline in my pace (which was to be expected), but then the month of April came and not only did I find another pace decline but also an overall mileage decline. 🙁 For me personally April was one of the busiest months as far as work was concerned and then to try and motivate myself to run solo after long days at the office or just feeling guilty about how late Mr. H and I would be eating dinner if I ran before cooking for the night. I really have never been an early morning workout person. Pre-pregnancy I faked it for about 6 years with my Tuesday & Thursday 6:00 a.m. weights sessions at Private Training Zone. But when you have a group waiting for you AND you’ve already paid for the sessions it’s easy to get your lazy behind out of bed. During this pregnancy those weights sessions have moved from the a.m. to the p.m. because there is just no will power whatsoever to get up and especially not get up for a solo run. I’m hoping that one day this may change. Fingers crossed.

Back to April, my total mileage came in at a lame 16.96. Talk about a drastic decrease! But you know what?! I may have only gotten out there to run on four different days (one of them being a race), but that’s better than 0 days of running!

It was probably in this month as well that I started noticing when I started my runs that my legs just felt like bricks. And the times when you would dig down deep and pull from your core for a run, nope, that wasn’t really happening anymore. I found myself one day on the treadmill trying to bust out a mile but in the last tenth of the mile I bumped the speed up a couple of notches, got an ache in my stomach and had to stop. I walked at an incline for 5 minutes on the treadmill before it finally went away and I finished out the last bit of that mile at a very reasonable pace. My body just can’t do the things it use to with running. All of this is such a HUGE lesson in constantly listening to your body and not pushing it past its limits. I like to think for the most part I’m doing a pretty good job at obeying it. It’s just a weird combination on run of feeling like your legs are bricks, your mind knowing you really can do this and your body just saying, “Nope, slow it down! We’ve got a baby to look out for!” It is also pretty incredible the protective mode your body goes into!

25 weeks 3 days pregnant at the Running Moms Rock 5K

Being in Texas we should be in a regular stint of just HOT weather, but we have been completely blessed with some amazing weather so far this spring! Don’t get me wrong there have been some hot days, but then a little cold front comes through and we’ve had some mornings in the low 50’s. The weather is just another aspect of this pregnancy that has spoiled me! Regardless, for the past month or so you will NOT find me outside running without at least a handheld water bottle. Staying hydrated and taking care of my lil guy is a high priority to me! Pretty soon if I’m still outside running my camelbak will make it’s glorious return to my runs.

While my numbers might have been down in April and they might not be much better for this month either, but as a whole I’ve put in (according to Runkeeper) 428.4 miles in this pregnancy. I am so very proud of each and every one of the miles! I don’t really have any goals going into the third trimester other than to get runs in when and while I can. And in the times when I can’t run to make sure I’m getting other forms of cardio in as well!

Filed Under: Pregnancy Tagged With: 5k, camelbak, hydration, pregnant, Private Training Zone, Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, runkeeper, running, Running Moms Rock 5K, running while pregnant, weights

A Little Baby Update

May 6, 2014 by Life is a Run · 4 Comments

Well, it’s been awhile since we’ve given an update on our pregnancies and OK, fine, it’s been awhile since we’ve given any sort of updates in general! Since we posted the Wordless Wednesday last week we thought it was only fair to update.

SO many things have been going on from preparing for each of our babies to get here to fun life events for friends to each of us having stuff at work pick up steam. Which ultimately has all played a part in making the time just feel like it’s flying by!

Time has flown by so much Teal now finds herself 40 weeks pregnant! We are all on baby watch with her!

Beginning of 2nd trimester on the left and the end of 2nd trimester on the right

While Beth is 27 weeks pregnant and welcoming in the third trimester!

Beginning of the 2nd trimester on the left and end of the 2nd trimester on the right!

It feels like it was just yesterday we were posting the big news of Teal being pregnant! For the most part things are still going smoothly with each of our pregnancies. *knock on wood* It would be nice for them to remain that way!

Filed Under: Pregnancy, Uncategorized Tagged With: babies, pregnant, running, second trimester, third trimester

Wordless Wednesday No. 45

March 5, 2014 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

Filed Under: Pregnancy, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: FIT, FIT at Stonebridge Ranch, gym, personal trainer, pregnant, Private Training Zone, PTZ, PVTTRZONE, weight training, weights

Running for Two: Trimester One

February 28, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

So, hey, I’m pregnant! Ok, that’s old news, but I’m in my second trimester now! Based on the way in which your due date is calculated (which was something I didn’t really know, perhaps, I am a dum dum) I was technically pregnant when Teal and I ran the DRC Half in November. Let’s just go with that so I don’t have to have a birds and the bees plus pregnancy calculation discussion on the internet. 🙂

Turns out Teal wasn’t the only preggo in this pic!

At the time I got pregnant I was not far off from finishing my training cycle for Dallas Marathon which was to be my last big marathon HOORAH! before I knew I’d take a step back from such long distances while pregnant. Since this is a new thing for me I didn’t want to pressure myself at all with running and let it play out the way it would. I found out I was pregnant around Thanksgiving which made me immediately think – wait, what all long run distances have I covered during this short amount of time? And it made since why there were a couple of runs where they just felt HARDER already and I would come to find out why shortly!

My first race where I knew I was pregnant

A couple of side notes about my pregnancy that have nothing to do with running. 🙂 There was one point I thought I might be pregnant, I remember telling Teal this, but when I took a test it was negative. Which was fine thought I felt already like something was just different with my body. As it turns out I’d really just taken the pregnancy test too early. The other thing which I just think is neat that your body just naturally start do is…Brent and I like to drink wine, but my desire for it just decreased. We’d sit down to unwind, I’d have one glass and I was just done. Again, I’d end up finding out I was pregnant during that time so it would all make sense later. OK, here is my final side not for you, I actually had a dream the night before that I got a positive pregnancy test so naturally I got up the next morning and took a test which was positive!!

Anyway, back to running, in the time that I was putting in long training runs for the marathon and I was pregnant but didn’t know it I’d actually run an 18 miler and 20 miler. Honestly, I just felt like runs got harder but I didn’t at the time know why. After my first doctor’s appointment they had told me to make sure I could still carry a conversation while running to know I wasn’t pushing myself too hard. OK, well, that’s easy because when Teal and I meet Catherine to run we all talk each other’s ears off. 🙂 When I’m by myself you can sometimes find me mouthing things to myself to see if I could carry a conversation if I had someone with me to talk to. Ha.

End of my last 20 miler for marathon training…a very toasty day!

I tried very hard in this first trimester (and still do now) to embrace that I will slow down, to remove any pressure I am guilty of normally putting on myself and know a slower pace of running is better than no running at all. This was a little bit harder in the first trimester just because I was keeping the pregnancy secret until I was out of the woods with the first trimester.

Other than that I’m trying to drink as much water as possible and hope Baby H doesn’t mind my continued running! I’ve been trying to get in 20 miles a week, so we’ll see how long I can keep that up!

Please note I don’t actually know the gender of my baby yet, so don’t read into the color of the header. However, I think, this baby will be a girl. 🙂

Filed Under: Pregnancy Tagged With: 18 miler, 20 miler, Dallas Marathon, DRC Half, marathon training, pregnant, running, running for two, trimester one

Running for Two: Trimester Two

February 6, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

They say the second trimester is the “honeymoon” phase and I have to say I am really not sure what they mean by that. I was not as tired which was awesome, and I didn’t have to just sit around and rest like I was in the first trimester, but that was about it. Everything else was still the same in terms of working out and running feeling more and more like extra work.

I had previously complained about breathing but it did not really become harder, which was nice. I just had some moments of feeling breathless and much of that started in the last couple of weeks of the second trimester instead of the beginning. Our last White Rock 9 mile run was tough and I had spots where I had to stand more to catch my breath even at a slow pace.

My pace has dropped again. I was normally around a 9:30 mile runner on average and am now closer to 10:30-11 average, which is hard to swallow sometimes. It’s slow (slow for me, not the world of running.) I didn’t think it would get that slow, but it has, and mixed in with that slowness is also many breaks.

Towards the middle of the second Trimester I had a pulling feeling in my lower stomach. Some I really can’t explain what they were, but it more or less felt like tightness or soreness at the bottom. I hesitate to call it round ligament pain (I only know about that because I read other people’s horror stories) and what I was experiencing was not horrible, it was just uncomfortable. It mostly would happen if I did runs closer together and would just stay tight for a couple of days. Also with that I had a few runs where I just felt the baby in weird places and stopped running. My belly button has felt bruised and sometimes when running it would feel like he was pushing there so I would stop running. I have also had a few times where I had to walk until he moved or a random pain would go away. It’s just weird to have a human in there doing its own thing while you are running. Most of the time it is fine, but sometimes it is weird and I would just stop and walk until it went away! Not sure what else to do but really my advice, if you wanted it, is just stop! I think if this was a second baby I would feel differently but having nothing to really compare feelings to it makes me nervous so I just stay cautious, even though I am sure it is fine!

My back HURTS. The last half we ran in California, the back pain started about the 8^th mile and continued for a week… haha

I don’t brave the elements like I would have before. It’s not worth freezing or burning up for any length of time to run a half while growing a human! As a matter of fact we both wussed out of our last half, and what would have been my last half with this baby due to poor weather.

In none running related news I got my trainer back!! I went 13 weeks without my trainer due to him opening a new gym, FIT, but am glad to be back with him and have consistent monitored cross training and weight lifting! It also just mentally makes me feel better. Packing on pounds is required and happens, but it’s not fun to see on the scale and being active really helps with this mental game. I struggle with it a lot and I am sure/wonder/hope I’m not alone in thinking lots of pregnant people do too.

I am ready for the 3^rd trimester and interested to see how much I will be able to keep moving. Many say it’s the most uncomfortable time, which I totally believe; I am not comfortable now but it is important to me to keep moving and do what I can. My plan is to keep running with a goal of 15 miles a week and will most likely not run any longer than 6-9 miles at a time. No more half marathons until after the baby gets here!

We really would love to hear from anyone who is or has run while pregnant! It’s nice to hear the stories, different experiences and advice! Let us know.